Recording apparatus capable of recording two kinds of signals by operation of a single member

ABSTRACT

A recording apparatus which records speech and image signals on a disc and includes a memory for storing the speech signal temporarily therein. It updates the contents of the memory in accordance with a triggering signal to record the speech signal and records the contents of the memory rewritten at the occurrence of the last triggering signal.

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/496,919filed Mar. 21, 1989, now abandoned, which is a divisional of Ser. No.188,748, filed Apr. 29, 1988, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,878, which is acontinuation of Ser. No. 828,255, filed Feb. 11, 1986, now abandoned.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to recording apparatus which are capableof recording speech signals.

2. Description of the Prior Art

One conventional recording apparatus which is capable of recordingspeech signals is disclosed, for example, as an electronic still cameracapable of recording speech, in unexamined Japanese Patent ApplicationNo. 218004/1982 which was published Dec. 19, 1983 and corresponding toU.S. Pat. No. 4,531,161 issued on July 23, 1985.

In this camera disclosed in that application, a signal EX which isgenerated by a switch and by which photographing is performed, a signalRC which starts to record speech and a signal AR which records a speechsignal afterwards are input to a synchronization control circuit. Whenthe signal RC is input, an analog speech signal input via a microphoneis A/D converted and then input to a shift register from which a digitalspeech signal is correspondingly output with a fixed delay of time. Whenthe signal EX by which photographing is performed is generated, thespeech signal delayed by the shift register is recorded on a magneticsheet (such as a magnetic floppy disk).

In accordance with the prior art, or as long the signal AR is generatedby a switch (not shown), speech is recorded on tracks on the magneticsheet.

In the above prior art, a head for recording an image on the sheet and ahead for recording speech on the sheet are provided separately. An imageis recorded in response to the signal EX by which photographing isperformed and speech which is delayed by the shift register is recordedsimultaneously. Thus speech for a fixed time before photographing isnecessarily recorded in advance on the magnetic sheet. Therefore, theuser must inconveniently predict the timing of photographing at alltimes and input the speech to the recording apparatus.

Such drawback occurs likewise in using a recording medium on whichoptical recording such as photomagnetic recording is performed, as isthe case with the magnetic recording.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is a first object of the present invention to eliminate the abovedrawbacks with the prior art.

It is a second object of the present invention to provide a recordingapparatus which is capable of freely updating a speech signal to berecorded on the recording medium before being recorded.

It is a third object of the present invention to provide a recordingapparatus which is capable of temporarily storing a speech signal to bestored on a recording medium and then storing the signal on the medium.

In order to attain the above objects, in an embodiment to be describedhereinbelow, a recording apparatus will be illustrated which comprises amemory for storing a speech signal generated during a predeterminedtime, a control circuit for updating the speech signal, and means forrecording the speech signal stored on the memory on a recording mediumsuch as a magnetic sheet.

Other objects of the present invention will be apparent from thefollowing description of embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a plan view illustrating a head and a magnetic sheet as arecording medium for use with a recording apparatus which is a firstembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a schematic structure of the firstembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 A-H is a timing chart showing the operation of the embodimentshown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 illustrates the structure of the memory shown in FIG. 3;

FIGS. 5A and 5B are flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment ofFIG. 3 when they are arranged as shown in FIG. 5;

FIGS. 6A and 6B and FIGS. 7A and 7B are flowcharts which are alternativeembodiment to the flowchart of FIGS. 5A and 5B when they are arranged asshown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 respectively; and

FIG. 8 illustrates the structure of another embodiment of button R₁, R₂,or R₃.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A recording apparatus which is one embodiment of this invention will nowbe described with respect to FIGS. 1 and 7.

FIG. 1 illustrates a magnetic sheet S as a

recording medium and magnetic heads H_(A), H_(V) which recordinformation on the sheet, for use with this embodiment.

Magnetic head H_(V) is for recording an image signal and magnetic headH_(A) is for recording a speech signal. Heads H_(V), H_(A) record imageand speech signals on image and speech tracks T_(V), T_(A),respectively; more particularly, either on image and speech tracksT_(V1) and T_(A1) or on image and speech tracks T_(V2) and T_(A2). Theinformation on image and speech tracks T_(V1), T_(A1) are reproduced inone set, and the information on image and speech tracks T_(V2), T_(A2)are reproduced in another set.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the schematic structure of anelectronic camera in the particular embodiment.

A speech signal output by a speech signal generator 1 such as amicrophone is amplified by an amplifier 2 and then data compressed in adigital or analog manner, and written into a memory 4. The speechinformation written into memory 4 is read in accordance with a signaloutput by a control circuit 5 and modulated by a recording circuit 6,and the modulated signal from the recording circuit 6 is recorded onmagnetic sheet S via speech recording head H_(A).

The image signal output by an image signal generating element 7 such asa solid state camera element is amplified by an amplifier 8, subjectedto predetermined signal processing by a process circuit 9 and thendelivered to a gating circuit 10. This circuit 10 is controlled by asignal produced by control circuit 5 and outputs a one-screen videosignal which is then recorded on magnetic sheet S via a recordingcircuit 11 from video recording head H_(V). Control circuit 5 receivessignals from a recording standby button R₁ which is pressed to start apreparatory operation for recording, a speech signal recording button R₂as a speech recording means, an image recording button R₃ as an imagerecording control means, a vertical synchronization signal VD producedby process circuit 9 and a pulse signal output by a pulse generator (notshown) of a magnetic sheet drive motor 12. As will be described later,when button R₁ is pressed and then button R₂ is pressed, a speech signalwritten into the memory is recorded at the timing when button R₁ isreleased. Control circuit 5 controls memory 4, gating circuit 10, motordrive circuit 13 which drives motor 12, and a head drive circuit 14which drives a mechanism for moving magnetic heads H_(V), H_(A) inaccordance with those signal inputs, as shown in the flowchart of FIG.5.

FIG. 3 is a timing chart showing the operation of the embodiment. In thefigure, reference character A denotes a 30 Hz pulse signal produced bythe pulse generator provided on motor 12 synchronously with a rotationof magnetic sheet S. Reference character B denotes a signal produced bypressing recording standby button R₁, the signal being shown as beingproduced for the duration from a time t₁ to a time t₆ during whichrecording of the speech and image signals is possible. Referencecharacter C denotes a speech recording triggering pulse output bypressing speech recording button R₂, the pulse being shown as beingoutput at times t₂ and t₅ in the figure. Reference character D denotes acorrespondence between time and speech signal information stored inmemory 4 by the speech recording triggering pulses output at times t₂and t₅. At the speech recording triggering pulse at time t₂, the speechsignal information for the interval from time (t₂ -T) to time (t₂ +T) isstored. At the speech recording triggering pulse output at the time t₅,the speech information for the interval from a time (t₅ -T) to time (t₅+T) is stored. In other words, a speech recording triggering pulsecauses the speech signal information for the interval from T secondsboth before and after the time when the speech recording triggeringpulse is output to be stored. Reference character E denotes an imagerecording triggering pulse output by pressing image recording button R₃,the pulse being shown as being output at time t₃ here. Referencecharacter F denotes the timing of recording image information onmagnetic sheet S by the image recording triggering pulse. The imageinformation is stored on image track T_(V1) at the recording timing(time t₄) next to time t₃ when the triggering pulse is output. Referencecharacter G denotes the timing of recording speech signal informationstored in memory 4. The speech signal information stored in memory 4 isstored on speech track T_(A1) at the timing (t₇) next to the timing(time t₆ here) when recording standby button R₁ is switched off.Reference character H denotes the timing when magnetic heads H_(A),H_(V) move. The timing H controls head drive circuit 13 at the time (inthis case, at time t₈) when all the recordings have been ended by A toG, and moves magnetic heads H_(A), H_(V) to the next speech and imagetracks T_(A2), T_(V2), respectively, in preparation for the nextrecording operations. That is, each of heads H_(A), H_(V) is moved bytwo tracks.

FIG. 4 schematically shows the structure of memory 4 used in theparticular embodiment. Memory 4 is divided into three locations MR(0),MR(1), MR(2), each of which can store speech signal information for Tseconds. Thus speech signal information for 2T seconds is taken from twolocations. For example, information is stored in location MR(0) duringthe interval from time (t₂ -T) to time t₂ and in MR(1) during theinterval from time t₂ to time (t₂ +T). Information is stored in MR(2)during the interval from time (t₅ -T) to time t₅. In this case, thespeech information for the interval from time (t₂ -T) to time t₂ storedfirst in location MR(0) is newly added to the speech information for theinterval from the time t₅ to (t₅ +T) by the second speech triggeringpulse output at time t₅.

The operation of control circuit 5 which performs the above operationswill now be described using a flowchart. FIGS. 5A and 5B comprise aflowchart which shows a control operation by control circuit 5. Thesystem starts to operate in response to turning on of the power supply.At a step 1, an initial value i for designation of an location in memory4 is set to zero. When it is determined that recording standby button R₁is switched on (step 2), the following speech and image recordingoperations are performed. At first, the speech recording operation willbe described. At a step A1, the speech signal information for the last Tseconds starts to be stored in the location MR(i) (i=0 now) of memory 4.At a step A2, it is determined whether or not speech recording button Ris pushed. If button R is pushed, the speech signal starts to be storedin location MR(i+1) (step A3). That is, at step A1, the speech signalfor the last T seconds has been stored in location MR (i) (i=0 now) ofmemory 4, so that when speech recording button R₂ is switched on withinT seconds after recording standby button R₁ has been switched on, thespeech for the interval from the time when recording standby button R₁has been switched on to the time when speech recording button R₂ isswitched on is stored in location MR(i) of memory 4.

After speech recording button R₂ has been switched on, the speech signalstarts to be stored in location MR(i+1) of memory 4, and the flow goesto a step A4 at which it is determined whether or not T seconds havepassed after speech recording button R₂ have been pushed. If T secondshas passed, the speech signal information for T seconds both before andafter the time when speech recording button R₂ has been pushed (t₂ inFIG. 3) has been stored. Thus the flow branches from step A4 to A5 andno further speech signal information will be stored in location MR(i+1).Thereafter, at step A5, speech signal information output successivelywill be stored in a location MR(i+2). The speech signal information forthe last T seconds will be stored in location MR(i+2), as at step A1. Ata step A6, it is determined whether or not standby button R₁ is off, orwhether the user has tried to cause information to be stored on magneticsheet S. If recording standby button R₁ is off, the speech signalinformation stored in locations MR(i) and MR(i+1) will be recorded onspeech track T_(V1) (step A9). If standby button R₁ is still on, it willagain be determined whether or not speech recording button R₂ has beenpushed (step A7). If speech recording button R₂ is not pushed, the flowwill return to step A5 to repeat the operations concerned. That is, whenbutton R₁ continues to be pushed, the speech signal for T seconds beforebutton R₁ is released is stored in MR(i+2) of memory 4. If speechrecording button R₂ is pushed, i.e. when the speech is re-stored,initial location designation value i will be set to 2 (step 8) and theflow will return to step A3 to repeat the operations concerned. It isassumed that the initial location designation value i has no valuesother than i=0, 1, 2.

The image recording operation will now be described. If recordingstandby button R₁ is determined to be pushed at step 2, it will bedetermined whether or not image recording button R₃ is pushed at stepV1. If button R₃ is not pushed, the flow will go to step V3, and ifbutton R₃ is pushed, the image information will be stored on image trackT_(V1) at the next recording timing at step V2, as described above, andthen the flow will go to step 3. At this step, it is determined whetheror not standby button R₁ is switched off. If button R₁ is switched on,the flow will return to step V1 to store the image information on theimage track. If standby button R₁ is off, and if the speech has beenrecorded, as described above, magnetic heads H_(A), H_(V) will move tothe next tracks T_(A2), T_(V2) after completion of the speech recording.If the speech has not been recorded, magnetic heads H_(A), H_(V) willmove to the next tracks T_(A2), T_(V2).

In the above embodiment, there is no memory for storing image signalinformation, but only memory 4 for storing speech signal informationbecause a memory having a huge capacity would be needed for storingimage signal information. However, a memory which can store imageinformation for a single screen, for example, one field, may be providednot only in the above embodiment, but also in other embodiments. Thiseliminates the need for immediate recording of image signal informationon magnetic sheet S and enables an image to be retaken as needed untilstandby button R₁ is pressed finally as in the case of the speechrecording. In the above embodiment, all the data stored in locationsMR(1) to MR(3) of memory 4 may be recorded as speech signals on thetracks when button R1 is pushed, button R₂ is pushed and button R₁ isswitched off. The speech information stored not in all the locations ofmemory 4, but in a specified location may be stored on magnetic sheet S.

With respect to FIGS. 6A and 6B, an embodiment will be described inwhich the speech information stored in a specified location of memory 4is recorded on magnetic sheet S.

This embodiment employs the same structure as that of FIGS. 1-4 exceptfor the flowchart showing the operation of control circuit 5, which isset as shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B.

In response to turning on of the power supply. the system starts tooperate. At step 1, location designation initial value i for memory 4 isset to 0. At step 2, a flag F which indicates that button R₂ is switchedon is reset to its initial state. If recording standby button R₁ is thendetermined as being switched on (at step 3), the following speech andimage recording operations will be performed. First, the speechrecording operation will be described. At step A1, the speech signalinformation for the last T seconds starts to be stored in location MR(i)(i=0 now) of memory 4. At step A2, it is determined whether or notspeech recording button R₂ is pushed. If it is pushed, flag F will beset to "1" at step A3. If it is not, it will be determined whether ornot recording standby button R₁ is switched on at step A9.

If speech recording button R₂ is pushed and recording standby button R₁is pushed, steps A1, A2, and A9 will be repeated in loop and the speechdata for the last T seconds is updated and stored in location MR(i) (i=0now) of memory 4.

Under these circumstances, if recording standby button R₁ is switchedoff, the flow will branch from step A9 to step A1 in which case flag Fis not "1", so that the flow branches from A10 to A11. If the trackwhich head H_(V) is accessing is not yet recorded completely, the flowwill return from step A11 to step A2. At step A2, when speech recordingbutton R₂ is on, the flow goes to A3, as described above, and flag F isset to "1". The location designation initial value i is then incrementedby 1 (step A4). At step A5, speech data starts to be stored in alocation MR(i) (i=1 now) of memory 4. This storing operation iscontinued for T seconds and the flow then goes to step A7. At this step,i is further incremented by 1. Execution of steps A5, A6 will causespeech data for T seconds to be stored in memory MR(i) of memory 4.

At steps A3, A7, incrementing the coset for 3, called (MOD 13), isperformed.

At step A8, it is then determined whether or not recording standbybutton R₁ is off. If it is off, the flow will go to step A12. If it isnot, the flow will return to step A1 to start the storing operation inlocation MR(i) (i=2 now) of memory 4, and then repeat the steps A1 to A8in loop.

At step A12, the speech data stored in locations, MR(i-2), MR(i-1) ofmemory 4 is recorded by head H_(V) on magnetic sheet S. That is, at stepA7, when i=2, a recording is made of the speech data stored in locationsMR(0), MR(1), more particularly, the speech data T seconds beforerecording button R₂ is switched on and the data for T seconds afterbutton R₂ is switched on.

If recording standby button R₁ continues to be on when the flow shiftsfrom step A8 to A1, new speech data will be stored in location MR(2) ofmemory 4. If recording standby button R₁ is switched from on to off withspeech recording button R₂ being not switched on while speech data isbeing stored in the location MR(2), the flow will go through steps A1,A2, A9, A10 to A12 where head H_(A) records the speech data stored inlocations MR(2), MR(1) of memory 4, more particularly, the speech datafor T seconds before and after the time when speech recording button R₁is switched on (the speech data for the interval from the time when theflow branches from step 3 to step A1 to the time when speech recordingbutton R₁ is switched on, and the speech data for T seconds after speechrecording button R₁ is switched on, if speech recording button R₁ isswitched on before T seconds has passed after the flow has branched fromstep 3 to step A1).

If speech recording button R₂ is again switched on when the flowbranches from step A8 to step A1, the flow will go from step A2 throughstep A3 to step A4 where location designation initial value i is furtherincremented by 1 to become 3. It should be noted that in the particularembodiment, i is shown as the coset for 3, as described above, so thatactually i=0. Steps A5, A6 are then executed to store in location MR(i)(i=0 now) of memory 4 the speech data for T seconds after speechrecording button R₂ has been switched on. At step A7, i is incrementedby 1. If, after i=1, it is detected that recording standby button R₁ isswitched on, the flow branches from step A8 to A12 to record the speechdata, stored in locations MR(i-2), MR(i-1) of memory H by head H_(A).Here the speech data is stored in locations MR(2), MR(0), moreparticularly, the speech data for T seconds both before and after thesecond time when speech button R₂ is switched on (when speech recordingbutton R₂ is switched on before T seconds has passed from the time whenthe flow branches from step A8 to step A1, the speech data for theinterval from the time when the flow branches from step A8 to step A1 tothe time when speech recording button R₂ is switched on, and the speechdata for T seconds after speech recording button R₂ is switched on).This flow is repeated each time speech recording button R₂ is switchedon.

The flow from step V1 to V3 is similar to that from step V1 to V3 ofFIGS. 5A and 5B and its explanation will be omitted.

Thus in accordance with the particular embodiment, when speech recordingbutton R₂ is switched on while recording standby button R₁ is on, thespeech data for a predetermined time both before and after the time whenstandby button R₂ is switched on is stored in memory 4 and recorded byhead H_(A) on magnetic sheet S when recording standby button R₁ isafterward switched off. When speech recording button R₂ is switched on aplurality of times while recording standby button R₁ is on, the speechdata for T seconds before and after the last time when recording buttonR₂ is switched on is recorded by head H_(A) on magnetic sheet S.

Thus the speech data can be re-recorded on magnetic sheet S byre-pushing speech recording button R₂ while recording standby button R₁is on.

Altering the timing of switching on speech recording button R₂ wouldpermit the speech recorded to be set at will.

In the above embodiment, if speech recording button R₂ is switched onwhile recording standby button R₁ is on, a recording will be made of thespeech data for T seconds after speech recording button R₂ has beenswitched on although recording standby button R₁ is switched off.

If recording standby button R₁ is switched off before recording of thespeech data for T seconds is completed after speech recording button R₂is switched on, a further recording of the speech data for the T secondswill not be made whereas the speech data for the T seconds will berecorded only if speech recording button R₁ is not switched off. Thiswill now be described with respect to FIGS. 7A and 7B which is similarto FIGS. 6A and 6B. In FIGS. 7A and 7B, steps 1 to 4, 11, steps A1, A2,and steps V1 to V3 are similar to those having corresponding referencesymbols of FIGS. 6A and 6B and will not be described further. Step 2' ofFIG. 7A functions to reset flags F1, F2 together.

In the particular embodiment, flag F1 is set and F2 is reset at step A13when speech recording button R₂ is switched on while speech data for Tseconds is being stored in location MR(i) (i=0 now) of memory 4 afterrecording standby button R₁ is switched on. At step A14, locationdesignation initial value i is incremented by 1, as in step A6 of FIG.6B. Execution of steps A15, A16, A17 causes the speech data for the Tseconds to be stored in location MR(i) (i=1 now) of memory 4.

If should be noted that since, in the particular embodiment, step A16 isprovided, the flow branches from step A16 to step A24 when recordingstandby button R₁ is switched on while steps A15, A16, A17 are beingexecuted.

In such case, since, at step A24, i=1 now in locations MR(i-1), MR(i) ofmemory 4, the data in locations MR(0), MR(1) of memory 4 is recorded byhead H_(A).

Consequently, when recording standby button R₁ is switched off before Tseconds passes from the time when speech recording button R₂ is switchedon after recording standby button R₁ has been switched on, the speechdata stored in memory 4 before speech recording button R₂ is switched onwill be recorded by head H_(A) on magnetic sheet S. The speech dataafter recording standby button R₁ is switched off will not be recordedon magnetic sheet S.

Thus in the recording apparatus of the particular embodiment, an amountof speech data to be recorded on magnetic sheet S can be controlled bythe user switching off recording standby button R₁ before thepredetermined time passes after speech recording button R₂ has beenswitched on.

When T seconds has passed with recording standby button R₁ being notswitched off while steps A15 to A17 are being repeated, the flowbranches from step A17 to A18 to reset flag F1 and set flag F2. Locationdesignation initial value i is then incremented by 1 to become 2 andthen the flow returns to step A1.

Subsequently, when the flow goes through step A1 to step A2, and ifspeech recording button R₂ is not switched on at step A2, the flow willbranch to step A20. When recording standby button R₁ is determined to beswitched off at step A20, the flow goes from step A20 to A21. In suchcase, flag F2 is set and flag F1 is reset, so that the flow branchesfrom step A21 to step A23 where the data in locations MR(0), MR(1) ofmemory 4 is recorded on magnetic sheet S.

In accordance with the particular embodiment, as just described, thespeech data is stored in memory 4 by switching on speech recordingbutton R₂ after recording standby button R₁ is switched on, and then thespeech data stored in memory 4 can be immediately recorded on themagnetic sheet by switching off recording standby button R₁. Inaddition, as in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, if speechrecording button R₂ is switched on while recording standby button R₁ ison, and if the recording standby button R₁ is switched off in apredetermined time, the speech data present after recording standbybutton R₁ is switched on will not be recorded on the magnetic sheet, butonly the speech data before recording standby button R₁ is switched onwill be recorded on the magnetic sheet, which is an advantage of theparticular embodiment.

Another embodiment on recording standby button R₁, speech recordingbutton R₂, and image recording button R₃ will now be described usingFIG. 8, which is a perspective view of the embodiment on the buttons R₁to R₃, showing the structure thereof. In FIG. 8, reference numeral 15denotes an electrostatic capacity detecting circuit which detects theelectrostatic capacity of an operation button 18 in the recordingapparatus and which if the electrostatic capacity of the operatingbutton is changed due to the operator finger touching the operatingbutton, will input to control circuit 5 a signal similar to the signalproduced when recording standby button R shown in FIG. 2 is switched on.Reference numeral 19 denotes a movable contact moved in response to apressing of operating button 18. Reference numeral 20 denotes a contactwhich contacts with movable contact 19 when same is pressed through afirst stroke. Contacts 19, 20 can be grounded via resistance. Contact 20is connected with the power supply. Signals from contacts 19 and 20 areinput as signals from speech and image recording buttons R₂ and R₃,respectively, to control circuit 5.

Accordingly, the arrangement of buttons R₁ to R₃ in the particularembodiment is such that pressing of operating button 18 through thefirst stroke causes a speech signal to be stored, a further pressing ofthe operating button through a second stroke causes an image signal tobe recorded on the magnetic sheet, and releasing of the operating buttoncauses the speech signal stored in memory 4 to be recorded on themagnetic sheet, which improves the operability of the apparatus greatly.

Of course, an alternative embodiment may have a switching structure inwhich three different signals are transmitted to control circuit 5 inresponse to three respective different strokes of operating button 18.

What is claimed is:
 1. A recording apparatus for recording informationon first storage means, comprising:a) second storage means which isrewritable; b) means for recording on said first storage meansinformation stored in said second storage means; and c) control meansfor controlling storage of information into said second storage means,said control means including;A) a first manually operated switch, havingat least one operative state, for causing said information to be storedin said second storage means; and B) a second manually operated switch,having at least one operative state, for inhibiting said second storagemeans from being rewritten.
 2. A recording apparatus according to claim1, wherein said first storage means includes a disc-shaped recordingmedium.
 3. A recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein saidrecording means includes:a) a recording circuit for modulating theinformation stored in said second storage means; and b) a head forrecording on said recording medium the information modulated by saidrecording circuit.
 4. A recording apparatus according to claim 1,wherein said first manually operated switch has a first state and asecond state, said first manually switch causing said information to bestored in said second storage means in said first state, and causingsaid reproducing means to operate in response to a change from the firststate to the second state to reproduce in said first storage means theinformation stored in said second storage means.
 5. A recordingapparatus according to claim 1, wherein said second switch has a firststate and a second state, and said second switch serves to inhibit thestorage contents of said second storage means from being updated in thefirst state of said second switch, and to permit the storage contents ofsaid second storage means to be updated in the second state of saidsecond storage means.
 6. A recording apparatus according to claim 1,wherein said information includes speech information and wherein saidsecond storage means stores the speech information in a compressed form.7. An audio and video pick-up apparatus comprising:(a) first conversionmeans for converting an optical image into an electrical image signal;(b) second conversion means for converting sound into an audio signal;(c) generating means for generating a recording trigger signal accordingto a manual operation; and (d) recording means for recording the audiosignal converted after said recording trigger signal is generatedwithout recording the audio signal converted before said recordingtrigger signal is generated and the electrical image signalrepresentative of a still image respectively by using different heads,in response to the recording trigger signal generated by said generatingmeans.
 8. An audio and video pick-up apparatus according to claim 7,wherein said predetermined time interval is a time which can be manuallyand variably set.
 9. An audio and video pick-up apparatus according toclaim 7, wherein said audio signal comprises a signal which is time-basecompressed.
 10. An audio and video pick-up apparatus according to claim7, wherein said setting operation is a manual operation.
 11. An audioand video pick-up apparatus comprising:(a) first conversion means forconverting an optical image into an electrical image signal; (b) secondconversion means for converting sound into an audio signal; (c) settingmeans for setting said apparatus in a stand-by state; (d) generatingmeans for generating a recording trigger signal when said apparatus isset in the stand-by state; and (e) recording means for recording theelectrical image signal representative of a still image, converted bysaid first conversion means, and the audio signal converted after saidrecording trigger signal is generated without recording the audio signalconverted before said recording trigger signal is generated,respectively by using different heads in response to the recordingtrigger signal generated by said generating means.
 12. An audio andvideo pick-up apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the audio signalto be recorded by said recording means comprises an audio signal in apredetermined time interval.
 13. An audio and video pick-up apparatusaccording to claim 12, wherein said predetermined time interval is atime which can be manually and variably set.
 14. An audio and videopick-up apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said audio signalcomprises a signal which is time-base compressed.
 15. An audio and videopick-up apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said recording triggersignal is manually generated.